Supervisor blasts
county officials

By DAVID HULSE

GLEN SPEY — Lumberland Supervisor John LiGreci says he’s interested in what county officials will do to help the town now, not the failed efforts of the past.

Reporting to the town board on September 12, LiGreci came down hard on a recent letter from Sullivan County Attorney Ira Cohen that responded to LiGreci’s August criticism of county assistance in his quest to reduce the number of tax-exempt properties in Lumberland. Legislator Kathy LaBuda (D-2) was in the town board meeting audience last month. At the time LaBuda warned of the expense of court actions related to past efforts in other towns.

Cohen sent copies of several Legislative resolutions addressing the problem of tax exempt, not-for-profit corporations.

LiGreci was not impressed. “If people want to sit on what they did last year, or five years ago or ten years ago…for personal reasons or whatever…that’s not acceptable to me,” he said.

“The county is supposed to help the towns. If not why are they there? Why are we collecting their taxes? I’m putting them on notice. If it means going forward alone, I’ll do that,” he said.

LiGreci said the town will pass a local law that will tighten the qualifications for the tax exemptions and said further that he has lined up no-cost legal assistance for the effort.

Lumberland has some 5,700 acres exempted by not-for-profit owners, which if returned to the tax rolls would provide 10 percent of the general fund budget and eight percent of the highway budget, the supervisor said.

“I will fight this ‘til the last nail is broken off my fingers,” LiGreci concluded.

In other business last week the town board approved releasing the contractors bond for the now completed closure of the former town landfill; reappointed Ronald Andrews to the Board of Assessment Review; approved the $1,200 purchase of two additional roadside historic markers and renewed their support of the Route 97, state scenic byway application.